Sen. Tom Cotton says survivors of first September boat strike 'were not incapacitated'

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., defended the Trump administration's Sept. 2 strike that killed remaining survivors after an initial strike on an alleged drug boat, telling NBC News' "Meet the Press" that the survivors "were not incapacitated."

WASHINGTON — Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., defended the Trump administration’s Sept. 2 strike that killed the survivors of an initial strike on an alleged drug boat, telling NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that the survivors “were not incapacitated.”

The senator also argued that President Donald Trump did not have to seek congressional approval if he continued boat strikes past the window designated by the War Powers Resolution, which puts checks on the president’s ability to use the armed forces without congressional approval.

Cotton, who serves as the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, was briefed by Adm. Frank M. Bradley last week on the September strikes. Bradley briefed the leaders of the House and Senate intelligence committees and the leaders of the House and Senate armed services committees.

Asked whether there was evidence indicating that the alleged drug boat was headed to the U.S. before the military struck it twice, killing survivors, Cotton said, “That didn’t come up in my briefing.”

“But again, there’s very reliable multiple sources of intelligence that tells us that this boat had drugs on it, that everyone on that boat was associated with these designated foreign terrorist organizations that are trying to kill American children,” Cotton said.